This is fascinating. While I have a soft spot for old computers, I don't think I would put that much time into such a project. I do admire the author's determin

This is fascinating. While I have a soft spot for old computers, I don't think I would put that much time into such a project. I do admire the author's determination, though! I imagine it must have been a lot of fun and thoroughly enjoyed reading about it. Just the other day, I was talking to one of our automation engineers on the phone, and while waiting for his computer to reboot, we talked about old hardware. He told me how, as a student, he sometimes had to write programs in FORTRAN, and how punched cards were kind of, eh, expensive[1], so the students were all kind of happy when somebody hooked up a paper tape reader to the university computer. Until, that is, they realized that paper tape - at least the paper they were using - was kind of prone to tear, and sometimes students would get their programs back in pieces. I feel nostalgic about this era I did not see for myself, but I also appreciate today's computers being cheap and - for most intents and purposes - mind-bogglingly fast. EDIT: Also, it is fascinating how the 1401 was simple enough that one could get to know each part of it so intimately, from the software running down to the individual pieces making up the processor. On today's computers, where even the keyboard controller is probably more complex than the entire 1401, this has become pretty much impossible. [1] This engineer is from Eastern Germany, and I know that, for example, audio tape was fairly expensive over there. But punched cards, made out of paper? And keep in mind, this must have been at least around 1980!